


Pretend

by rae_aaah



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 14:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18896485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rae_aaah/pseuds/rae_aaah
Summary: Lance gets thrown into an alternate reality where he meets an adult version of Keith.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [aboklanceholamama](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/482491) by genelpan. 



> Inspired by [@aboklanceholamama](www.instagram.com/aboklanceholamama/?igshid=1ifb269et4j82). If you're not reading it, what are you doing with your life?

Keith looks at a Lance that's at least ten years younger, lying in his bed. If he could commune with ghosts, he's sure his Lance would be kicking up a fuss to hell and back. But he can't, so he can only imagine. 

Everything about this Lance is the same as he remembers; tanned skin, wavy hair curling at the ends, the sharp flick of his nose at the tip. He's missing the scar over his left brow, but that'll come later- maybe. Even the set of his mouth is the same and Keith wants to-

_ No… That’s not for you,  _ he chides himself.

He's spoken more times with Slav than he cares to count to know an alternate reality when he sees one. Stranger things have happened, to be honest, and he was always good at rolling with the punches.

His communicator is a heavy thing in his hand and he's sure that Allura will contact him tomorrow asking about a missed call, but that's for later Keith to deal with.

Now. Right now. He has Lance in his bed again.

He knows he shouldn't. He really, really shouldn't. But the call  is too strong.

Does he sound the same? Does he breathe the same? Is his scent still that spicy hit of cloves when he inhales?

Keith stands there for a moment, two parts of himself warring against each other. One side always wins and this time it’s his loneliness, his greed, all the selfish parts of him that banded together to overpower his sensible parts.

Keith lifts his leg and presses his knee to the mattress gingerly. Watches if the tell-tale sign of Lance waking up is the same. It should be, but he could still be wrong.

Another Lance doesn’t stir. Eyes shut, the sweep of his lashes still so delicate like how he remembers.

Keith eases onto the sheets covering another Lance.

Are their hearts alike?

He presses his ear to a broad chest;  _ ba-bum ba-bum boom ba-bum ba-bum _ . 

Yes, the exact same.

Keith blinks, the edges of his eyes prickling and his nose tingles and heats. He curls his legs up, suddenly cold, suddenly angry.

Suddenly sad.

Does this Lance love another Keith? Is his other self gone already?

All these what ifs, but that's a problem for tomorrow Keith to deal with.

But for now.

Right now. For him. For just a little while.

Keith rests his head against Lance, and pretends.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance is… just like how he remembers. Loud, brash, mouth running ahead of him a million miles. And his eyes. Such a lovely shade of blue that it’s rivaling the sky behind him. Keith can recall every picture they've taken together, has his favorite ones framed all over the house but they can never compare to the real thing and it’s been so, so long.

And Lance is here, right here, and he’s whole. A Lance that sounds like his, smells like his- has the same heartbeat in not one reality but in two. He’s his but not all at once and the thought stings like a sharp slap, needles under his skin, making him ache.

This whole ordeal feels like it should be a dream, like he could wake up and write it off to a vivid imagination and longing.

But it’s not.

He’s not.

He’s here. Right here.

How his Lance  _ isn't _ .

And this Lance is young, so young. A brighter shadow of his past self.

Keith can't believe they were ever that young.

Just as well, because Lance can't believe Keith is that old. Time changes a lot of things.

He snorts an amused laugh through his nose, watches as if in slow motion as Lance approaches. His touch is unafraid. Keith lets him roam his hands all over, inspecting his thrumming body like it’s some sort of magic trick and the universe is showing him its secrets.

And it’s such a bad idea, such a selfish one, letting Lance close like this, letting him feel him like this, but Keith was never been one to tell him no, had always been weak for him. Always.

He leans into that warm palm, savoring it, reveling in it. The skin is soft, unbroken, smoother than it was when he held it… last.

Lance's thumb rolls under his eye, the pad resting at the crest of his cheek where the bone rises, where the tip of his scar begins. His hair gets pushed to the side by the knuckles on the back of Lance's hand and Keith tucks his cheek deeper into the touch, a little shy.

All of that blue is focused on him now and Keith has forgotten what it’s like. He aches at feeling the ghost of affection there even if it was half a lifetime ago.

His Lance would touch him like this. Exactly like this.

It's been too long without him, Lance-  _ his _ Lance, his Alpha, his mate. He takes everything offered greedily.

Keith is a little over forty years and he's still impulsive.

Lance's curiosity shines through, as he knew it would and Keith… as jealous as he is over his other self, he can't-

"Spoilers," he says.

He won't let it happen a second time.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith knew that this moment would come, knew it bone deep. But he pressed it down, pushed it away. Let himself  _ pretend-  _

He has a vivid flash of Lance, his Lance, the only one that he ever had and never will again, dulled out by the pouring rain and the black skies, sees blood the color of Red’s hull flow out of him like a river and Keith can’t do anything to stop it-

“You always go! That’s the last thing you said!”

_ You didn’t have to leave me- _

“You said you’d come back. You  **didn’t.** ”

And Keith lets himself spill over, says the things that he could never say because the one person that needed to hear it is gone. It hurts all over again. Hurts in a way that didn’t before and Keith lets it all come out. He aches, his breath short and his blood rising to the surface and he’s glad his kids aren’t around to see him like this, broken and sad and he just. Lets it come.

After he shouts, his legs feel weak and his knees buckle. The couch catches his fall and he hides his face, can’t bear to look at Lance right now.

He feels that warm hand against his skin and lists towards it, leans into it.  _ Take it while you can _ , he thinks.  _ Because he’s going to go _ . Again. Knows the words that Lance is going to say because he’s heard it all before. The only thing that’s different is Keith himself.

He rises from the couch and takes the Paladin armor out from where he’d been hiding it, touching across the breastplate. It’s smaller than he remembers, heavier, but the scratches are all in the right spots. Keith throws it at Lance, his face set. Tells him where to find Red.

Turns to leave.

But Lance… he’s the same as his. Keith had forgotten how stubborn, how forgiving, how big their hearts are-were-is.

He feels an arm wrap around him, a tight band that cinches his waist to an even warmer body. “I wish the best for you,” he says and Keith breaks all over again.

*

Lance’s hand is small in his, but still every bit as warm as he remembers.  _ Please, please-  _

“Can you,” and he swallows, his fingers spasming against Lance’s. “Can you call me… you know,  _ that  _ again?” The name he secretly loves. The one he hasn’t heard in years. “One last time?”

He doesn’t see Lance’s face, too focused looking at the grass between their feet. He hears the soft inhale of breath. “Of course, Kitten.”

And it’s like a stone being pushed off his chest at the sound, a heavy hammer breaking it to pieces, and Keith hasn’t felt this light since he found Lance in the rain. He pulls Lance to him, shorter than he was, younger than he was, but the smell of him is the same. The sound of his heartbeat is the same. Across all universes- he’s the same.

He gives Lance a kiss to the forehead, one last-

“Goodbye.”

*

The sun is bright the next day, no sign that anything was the amiss around his house. Shiro is there, with Curtis and Adam, bringing home his children and Danny jumps into his arms, shouting into his ear. He waves to the three of them and puts his hand on his daughter’s head.

Pidge nudges him, asks him if he’s alright. Says, “Can’t have the birthday boy sad in the party, am I right?”

Keith feels his heart skip, skip again, then pound double time in earnest to catch up.

He feels like crying, like shouting, like laughing. His body thrumming with this newfound elation. He feels like he could go up against Zarkon all over again. Feels like he did the first time he got into Red, flying so fast. Feels like the first time he kissed Lance, after a hard battle smelling like sweat and grit- when Lance proposed to him on a sunny day in mid-October.

When Danny was born.

When they got Luna.

He feels everything, all of them, all at once.

Every other important thing has happened to him on this very same day.

Why should this one be any different.


End file.
